Editor

The North Ceredigion Forum for Elderly Care is concerned by the lack of information from Ceredigion County Council about the future of the site of the former Bodlondeb residential home.

Repeated requests over the past 12 months to the leader of the council, Cllr Ellen ap Gwynn have been met with a consistent “Bodlondeb has been sold subject to contract”.

It is two years since Bodlondeb closed and, the forum believes that for much of this time a robust and viable offer to provide desperately needed Elderly Mentally Infirm beds has been in place.

The sticking point seems to be a request from the purchaser to defer a payment of £200,000 for 12 months (2019/20 budget for Adult Services £48.5m).

The sum of £200,000 is coincidentally the same amount Cllr Ellen ap Gwynn found in 2018 and donated to the National Eisteddfod.

In the interests of transparency and the public’s right to know, the NCFEC would like to pose the following questions to the County Council:

Why was the request to defer not agreed to when the plan offers the prospect of 40-plus EMI beds and when, at the end of 2017/18, as Bodlondeb closed, there were 30 people in nursing care out of county?

Why do many of these people and their families continue to suffer separation, a prospect faced by the 15 currently on the waiting list for the seven in-county EMI beds?

Why do the councillors initially contacted by the forum say they were unaware of developments, believing the deal to have fallen through in April 2018?

What the forum respectfully asks is that the county council considers the fact that a robust plan is in place and that by deferring payment of £200,000 for 12 months, Bodlondeb will be put to use once more and a crisis affecting the most vulnerable in our county can be addressed.

Finally, we ask the county council to please, consider this offer to buy Bodlondeb, which the forum believes to be the only suitable offer received to date, and to weigh the costs to the county council against the benefits to the people who voted for you to represent them and avoid snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

George Holloway, North Ceredigion Forum for Elderly Care

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